TopCoder problem "Champagne" used in TCCC '03 Round 2 (Division I Level One)



Problem Statement

    Before you lies a tower of champagne glasses that must be filled. Each glass rests upon exactly 2 other glasses beneath it, with the exception of the lowest row, which sits on the table. An example of a 5 glass tall tower is shown below:
                             1
                           2   3
                         4   5   6
                       7   8   9   10
                    11  12  13   14   15

Each glass can hold 2 units of champagne, and if more than 2 units of champagne fall into any glass, all but 2 of the units will overflow equally into the two glasses below it. Thus, all of the champagne poured into glass 1 after the first 2 units will fall equally into glasses 2 and 3. Once 2 and 3 overflow they will each, independently, distribute the champagne into the two glasses beneath them. At that point glass 5 will be receiving champagne from both glasses 2 and 3. Glass 4 will be receiving champagne from just glass 2, and glass 6 will be receiving champagne from just glass 3.

Given the height of the tower, the number of units poured into glass 1, and the number of a particular glass, return what fraction of that glass is full. Your solution should be a reduced fraction (lowest terms) in the form "numerator/denominator" with no leading zeros in either the numerator or denominator. Full glasses are denoted by "1/1" whereas empty glasses are denoted "0/1". The glasses are numbered in the same way as above, namely left to right, top to bottom. Note, once a glass on the bottom layer is full, extra champagne will just spill onto the table.

 

Definition

    
Class:Champagne
Method:howMuch
Parameters:int, int, int
Returns:String
Method signature:String howMuch(int height, int glass, int units)
(be sure your method is public)
    
 

Notes

-Glass 1 is in the first row. The glass beneath it, on its left side, is glass 2. More generally, if glass i is in row j the glass beneath it, on its left side, if it exists, is glass i+j.
 

Constraints

-height must be between 1 and 20 inclusive
-glass must be a valid glass number given the value of height
-units must be between 1 and 300 inclusive
 

Examples

0)
    
1
1
1
Returns: "1/2"
Pouring only 1 unit will fill the first and only glass half way.
1)
    
2
2
2
Returns: "0/1"
The top glass is full, but no champagne has spilled into glass 2.
2)
    
2
3
3
Returns: "1/4"
The top glass is full and one unit of champagne has spilled out of it. This spilled champagne is evenly distributed between glasses 2 and 3.
3)
    
3
4
7
Returns: "1/8"
Pouring 6 units causes glasses 1 through 3 to be full. The seventh unit of champagne will make its way to glasses 4 through 6.
4)
    
3
5
7
Returns: "1/4"
5)
    
20
204
300
Returns: "5581/131072"
6)
    
20
204
299
Returns: "8663/262144"

Problem url:

http://www.topcoder.com/stat?c=problem_statement&pm=1525

Problem stats url:

http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=ProblemDetail&rd=4472&pm=1525

Writer:

brett1479

Testers:

lbackstrom , schveiguy

Problem categories:

Dynamic Programming, Simulation